Friday, September 07, 2007
Review: Swiss Colony Butter Toffee Trio
Prefacing the run-up to the annual winter holidays are ads, some amount of good will, significantly more shopping, and Swiss Colony. I remember first having a taste of the company's summer sausage in a big county fair in my youth. Now Swiss Colony has become a seasonal fixture in malls and what I remember being called Beef Stick comes in a larger size called the Beef Log. But the company has added some things sweet to the meat beat. A PR rep had Swiss Colony send out a sample of the Nutty Toffee Trio: "Squares of almond butter toffee are blanketed with Milk or dark Swiss Blend Chocolate, or Swiss Creme, and then topped with almonds, pecans or white candies."
The toffee was decent enough, though the "Swiss Creme" is like a pseudo-white chocolate: not much flavor, though it would be a nice contrast to dark and milk chocolates. Unfortunately, it sat outside a bit on a warm day before we noticed the box. The freezer pack was completely melted, and so were half the toffee pieces. Nothing like prying pieces of candy glued down in a puddle of once-melted chocolate. Price is $16.95 for 9.5 ounces, which works out to about $28.55 a pound. Shipping to our little part of rural Massachusetts would have been $4.95 - not terrible, but at 5 to 7 days, I wonder if anything would have been recognizable in the box. Unfortunately, two-day shipping would have been $25, pushing the price far higher than is worthwhile. If you're considering sending something from Swiss Colony, I'd suggest waiting for real cold to set in, or, if you're in warmer climes, choosing something less subject to heat or picking up the product from a mall and delivering it in person.
The toffee was decent enough, though the "Swiss Creme" is like a pseudo-white chocolate: not much flavor, though it would be a nice contrast to dark and milk chocolates. Unfortunately, it sat outside a bit on a warm day before we noticed the box. The freezer pack was completely melted, and so were half the toffee pieces. Nothing like prying pieces of candy glued down in a puddle of once-melted chocolate. Price is $16.95 for 9.5 ounces, which works out to about $28.55 a pound. Shipping to our little part of rural Massachusetts would have been $4.95 - not terrible, but at 5 to 7 days, I wonder if anything would have been recognizable in the box. Unfortunately, two-day shipping would have been $25, pushing the price far higher than is worthwhile. If you're considering sending something from Swiss Colony, I'd suggest waiting for real cold to set in, or, if you're in warmer climes, choosing something less subject to heat or picking up the product from a mall and delivering it in person.
Labels: opinion, review, Swiss Colony, toffee
